Google has partnered with BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business for the development of a 1-gigawatt (GW) pipeline of new solar capacity in Taiwan to advance clean energy on the local electricity grid. As part of the partnership, Google will make a capital investment in New Green Power (NGP), a Taiwanese solar developer and BlackRock portfolio company, to facilitate the buildout of its large-scale solar pipeline.
According to Google, many countries in the Asia Pacific face unique challenges with adding new carbon-free energy, including land constraints, low availability of commercially scalable wind and solar resources, and high construction costs. As a result, 85% of Taiwan’s electricity is still generated through fossil fuels, including imported coal and natural gas.
Companies can significantly contribute to increasing the supply of renewable energy sources and promoting emerging technologies that facilitate the full decarbonisation of regional electricity systems. Google’s investment in NGP will serve as development capital toward its 1 GW pipeline of new solar projects, catalysing critical equity and debt financing for such projects.
Google expects to procure up to 300 MW of solar energy from this pipeline through power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the associated energy attribute certificates (Taiwan Renewable Energy Certificates or T-RECs) to help meet electricity demand from their data center campus, cloud region and office operations in Taiwan.
The tech giant may also offer a portion of this clean energy capacity to its semiconductor suppliers and manufacturers in Taiwan.